Steppe Empires

To understand the vast, shifting networks of the Silk Road is to understand Samarkand.

Long before they were written into Chinese history as the Xiongnu—a name meaning fierce slave—the nomadic peoples of the eastern Eurasian Steppe lived in a world defined by the horizon and the horse.

The collapse of the Hunnic Empire came swiftly in the spring of 453 CE, precipitated by the sudden death of a ruler whose very name struck terror into the hearts of two Roman capitals.

The Yuezhi emperor Kanishka I ruled an empire that stretched from the windswept tracks of Central Asia and Gandhara all the way to Pataliputra on the Gangetic plain, marking the absolute zenith of Kushan power.

In the fifth century CE, a formidable power emerged from the shadow of the Pamir Mountains to dominate the vast landscapes of Central Asia.

The high, windswept plains of the Tibetan Plateau seem an unlikely cradle for one of Asia’s most formidable conquering powers, yet in the seventh century, the Yarlung dynasty erupted from its southern valley to forge an…

An eight-year-old boy abandoned by his tribe on the Mongolian steppe, reduced to near-poverty, would seem an unlikely candidate to alter the course of global history.

In the early thirteenth century, the fragmented kingdoms of Europe woke to a threat that bypassed their traditional rivalries and forced a temporary, panicked peace.